PRIVACY POLICY – VISITOR REGISTRATION SYSTEM

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for the Visitor Registration System. It contains information on how the British Council handles the personal information that you have provided within the registration process.

THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We know that your privacy is very important to you. Please be assured that it is also important to us. We want to ensure that you understand why we collect your personal information and how we use that information.

The types of personal information we collect within registration include your name, contact information and email address. If the registration process is further completed, we also then ask for you to provide your postal address and career information.

HOW WE USE THIS INFORMATION

The personal information you provide will be used to administer your account so that you can access the website and any other external websites for further reading and research.

Your information allows us to; register you for event attendance; add to newsletter sign-up; allow the use of QR/Access coding to be used; receive further information on third parties/institutions (if consent is given); use anonymised data for our research purposes; use anonymise data for exhibitors use (for attendance profiling).

DATA REQUIRED FOR MINORS

The British Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. It is also committed to a policy of equal opportunity and diversity and expects all staff and stakeholders to share this commitment.

No information shall be obtained or permitted from children under the age of 13 in any circumstances

If you are a minor aged between 13 to 16 years you must seek parent/guardian’s permission before sending, completing or trying to open an account via the internet with the British Council.

All minors between the ages of 13 to 16 years will need authorisation from a parent/guardian. A parent/guardian email address will be required, and confirmation will be checked.

For the Visitor Registration System (VRS), personal data will be required to open an account. Parental/guardian participation must be given by way of a secondary email address to allow activation of account. Parents/guardians will first be able to view all proposed information before confirming account access.

WHO WE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH

We shall only pass your personal information to our trusted third-party service providers, ie Moni-media and Campaign Monitor, for use in connection with administering your account and registering you on events.

We may use your personal information to market British Council products and services that may be of interest to you. For example, Study UK, IELTS and other educational providers registered on the International Education Services website. We will only contact you if you have consented to receive marketing information.

Please note that sometimes court orders and legal and regulatory obligations change, which may mean that we must use your personal information in different ways to comply with these requirements. This may mean providing your personal information to specific government departments where necessary.

We will keep your information for no longer than is necessary. The length of time will be dependent on account activity and account expiry date.  We will delete any accounts with non-activity within a seven year period.

MARKET RESEARCH / SURVEYS

We may also use the personal information you provide for the purposes of carrying out market research and analysis on our products and services.  This information is generally used to see what we can improve in the future. To do this we, or our trusted third-party market research providers ConfirmIT, Survey Monkey and Lime Survey may contact you by email/SMS.  This will allow you to provide feedback on our customer service, your customer journey or our services in general.

Based on the information that you have already supplied within your registration, and if your profile meets the required criteria, we may contact you in the future to invite you to participate in a specific research project. We do this in our legitimate interest.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

Our servers are sited in the European Economic Area (EEA).  Regardless of the country of origin, all data is held on the EEA servers with a cloud backup service also in the EEA.

For the purposes of marketing, we use an e-mail software provider based in the United States of America.

All automated emails are sent from an e-mail software provider, also based in the United States of America, who keep a three-day sending log which includes email addresses.

QR SCANNING & ACCESS CODES AT EVENTS

The email you receive once you complete registration will include a QR/Access code.  This is a personalised code and is provided to you by the organiser either via the pre-registration website or on the day arrival   The QR code appears like a group of markings within a square box and the access code is a small series of numbers. 

The code(s) will be used to record your attendance to the event by the British Council.

You can also use the code to allow institutions to record that they have made initial contact with you, either by allowing them to scan your QR code or giving them your Access code.  In doing this your personal data will be shared with the institution.

A URL link to the institutions privacy information can be found in their profile listing in the ‘participating institutions’ tab on the event website.

IMPORTANT - If you do not wish to grant an institution access to your personal data, you should not allow them to scan your QR code or make a note of your access code.

OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AT VENUES

Photographers may be commissioned at events to capture images for historical or promotional purposes; photographs may be taken of groups or to capture the wider attendance at the venue; when this is happening guidance notices will be placed around the venue advising how to remove yourself from official photographs should you wish to do so.

Where portraits or small group photographs are taken individual consent will be sought to use the images for promotional or commercial purposes. Consent forms will be provided by the photographer at the event; you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

USE OF COOKIES

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website without storing any personally identifiable information about you. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

You can read our full policy on the use of cookies in English

ACCESSING YOUR OWN DATA

Under the UK Data Protection Act 2018 any individual has the general right to ask for a copy of the personal information held about them. This means that you can ask for the information that we hold about you. This is known as the right of ‘subject access’. When making a request you will need to give us:

  • a request in writing;

  • proof of your identity (e.g. passport);

  • proof of your address (e.g. utility bill); and

  • any information that we reasonably need to process the request, for example, details of our offices or staff that you have had contact with and when.

We will not start looking for your information until we receive all of the above. In order to submit your request, or for help making a request, please contact our Information Governance Advisor (Disclosures) at IGDisclosures@britishcouncil.org

Although you should submit a request in writing, if would like to speak to someone in person, you can contact us by telephone on +44 (0)161 957 7624.

UNSUBSCRIBE

You can stop receiving any marketing from us at any time. Using various methods:

1. to stop, change or unsubscribe you can amend your personal profile within settings of account;

2. we provide you with the opportunity to discontinue receiving future marketing communications within the outgoing email, therefore, simply follow the unsubscribe process or directions provided within this email; or

3. contact our web team

If any of the mechanisms set forth above are not available or you wish to make a different request, please contact us here.

MAKING A COMPLAINT

We value your opinion. We hope to make your experience of dealing with the British Council an excellent one and we welcome your comments, suggestions and details of your satisfaction or dissatisfaction regarding the service you have experienced when contacting us or using any of our products or services. We would also like to hear if a particular member of staff has provided you with exceptional service.

You can read our full policy on making a complaint in English.

The British Council complies with data protection law in the UK and laws in other countries that meet internationally accepted standards.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold on you, and the right to ask us to correct any inaccuracies in that information. If you have concerns about how we have used your personal information, you also have the right to complain to a privacy regulator.

For detailed information, please refer to the privacy section of our website, www.britishcouncil.org/privacy or contact your local British Council office.

GENERAL

The policy may be amended from time to time. If such amendments affect how the Visitor Registration System (VRS) uses or discloses personal information already held in a material way, we will notify you and obtain consent.

 

 

This content was last updated on 17/10/2019